1. SoCoMo Marketing for Travel and
Tourism
Dimitrios Buhalis & Marie-Kristin Foerste
eTourism Lab
Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, UK
ENTER 2014 Research Track
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2. Agenda
• Introduction
– Problem
– Previous research
• Method
• Evaluation Results
– Conceptual Framework
– SoCoMo Marketing for Travel and Tourism
– Conclusion
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3. Introduction
- Problem-
Central Aim of Marketing
To provide customers with:
The Right Product
 At the Right Time
 To the Right Place
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4. Introduction
- Problem-
Mobile Social Media Marketing
Social media
•To address consumer needs and preferences
•To react upon market trends
•To develop deep personal relationships between customers and
businesses (co-creation personalisation  customer
satisfaction)
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5. Introduction
- ProblemSocial Media + Mobile
•Growth of mobile adoption (driven by their ability to stay socially
connected)
•Mobile Social Activity: Customers share opinions and decisions in the
moment of action
•Mobile devices are used in situations where preferences tend to vary
•+ location-based technologies: marketers can connect this information
with their need for information from the immediate
environment
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6. Introduction
- ProblemLocation-based social networks:
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7. Introduction
- Problem-
Location-based Services
•Identification of the location of the consumer
•Creation of location-specific offers based on the preferences
and behaviors that the consumer has revealed on social media
 ‘SoLoMo’
Powerful opportunity to serve the multi-channel and
multi-experienced customer
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8. Introduction
- ProblemThere is more than location!
Context:
“Any information that can be used to characterise the
situation of an entity. An entity is a person, place,
or object that is considered relevant to the interaction between
a user and an application, including the user and applications
themselves” (Abowd and Dey 1999)
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9. Introduction
- Problem-
Contextual Information
External Contextual
Information
•
•
•
•
•
•
Location
Season/Time
Humidity
Light
Weather
Social Environment
Internal Contextual
Information
• Tasks (e.g. to look for a
job)
• Emotional status (sad,
happy, etc.)
• Goals
• Personal events
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10. Introduction
- Problem-
• Mobile Devices are said to have the biggest potential for contextrelevant information
• Latest generation devices are equipped with sensors
- Optical sensors
- Audio sensors
- Motion sensors
- Bio sensors
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11. Introduction
- Problem-
Sensors make mobile devices aware of the situation in which they are
used and of the tasks that the user will perform in the near future,
(Context-Awareness)
 Up to date, situation-specific information while customer is on the
move creates additional meaning to the information
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12. Introduction
- Previous ResearchRelated Studies
•Tussyadiah (2012): Location-based social network (LBSNs)
marketing
Research Gaps
•Limitations in the area of social media in combination with
location-based marketing
•Lack of studies concerning a broader concept of social media
and context marketing combinations
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13. Method
• Conceptual Study
1. Desk Research
2. Conceptual Framework
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14. Evaluation Results
-Conceptual FrameworkConceptual Framework
--
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15. Evaluation Results
- Conceptual Framework-
Advantages of SoCoMo Marketing
Consumer
Supplier
• Personalized, situation- • Long-term loyalty
specific information
• Increased Co-creation
(added value)
• Opportunity to
compete with larger
• More satisfaction
businesses
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16. Evaluation Results
- SoCoMo Marketing for Travel and Tourism-
Tourist Perspective:
•Effective response to the fundamental need of
tourist: information during all stages of the travel experience
•Acquisition of unforeseen information to cope with unexpected
situations
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17. Evaluation Results
- SoCoMo Marketing for Travel and Tourism-
Marketing Perspective:
•Powerful communication
•Higher degrees of personalisation
•Supply with highly context-related information can lead to
unplanned travel behavior
•Creation of more convenient tourism experiences
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18. Evaluation Results
- SoCoMo Marketing for Travel and Tourism-
Challenges:
•Privacy Concerns
•Prices of mobile data in other countries
•Technological limitations
- GPS functions quickly drain the battery power
- Graphical nature depends on screen sizes
- Display of texts, fonts and graphics varies with different mobile
devices
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19. Evaluation Results
- Conclusion-
• Growing amount of devices that allow marketers to generate
situation-aware information
• In tourism SoCoMo marketing can contribute to a more
satisfying experience.
• In the near future:
 Context-aware services will be enhanced with more
information that is transmitted without the consumer’s consent
 Semantic web will bring about technologies that recognize and
understand the meaning of content and therefore maximize the
potentials of SoCoMo marketing
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20. ENTER 2014 Research Track
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